


Beautiful

by juzi



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-10-13 19:04:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10519932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juzi/pseuds/juzi
Summary: Therese has never quite gotten used to Carol calling her beautiful...





	1. Chapter 1

It would happen off-hand during little moments, such as the time that Therese had been searching her dresser for the perfect outfit for an upcoming work event. She couldn’t seem to find quite the right item and was becoming terribly frustrated with everything she tried on. Of course she wouldn’t let Carol know her frustration; the last thing she wanted was for Carol to pander reassurance to her, especially when Therese felt that her wardrobe could only ever look homely— at best — next to Carol’s own. Every so often she would glare at Carol, silently daring her to say a word, or more likely give some wise advice that Therese would be too stubborn to take.

But it was easy enough for Carol to read the situation. She was sitting in the corner chair with a book in hand, minding her own business as Therese fussed around their bedroom and threw different sweaters this way and that, messing up the hairstyle that she had just carefully put together. 

“You look beautiful, baby,” Carol finally said matter-of-factly across the top of her book, peering steadily at Therese over her reading glasses.

Therese tried to keep up her façade of being too disgruntled to engage, but it was no use. A warm glow — the same warmth that she had felt all over the very first time that Carol had called her baby — had started to rise in her chest as soon as Carol spoke. Even though Therese was half-in, half-out of at least two separate garments, and knew how disheveled she looked without even having to look in the mirror, she smiled inwardly knowing that Carol would still find something to love about her. She sighed and finally stopped fighting with the cardigan that she had been in the process of pulling on. 

Walking over to Carol in the corner with a tired smile, Therese leaned down slowly to place the softest kiss to Carol’s lips. “I do?” she asked nicely, feigning incredulity.

“Mm hmm,” Carol muttered. She nodded against Therese’s lips, letting her book fall to her lap as she leaned in to capture Therese’s lips once again. Therese smiled at how easily Carol could be distracted by a simple kiss. She began to run one of her hands slowly through Carol’s hair, eventually resting it gently at the nape of Carol’s neck and pulling her closer still, teasing her now with kisses around her ear. Therese nuzzled and nibbled adorably, making sure that Carol would feel the warmth of her breath against her skin. This solicited a slow sigh from Carol as she relaxed further into her seat, her book now completely forgotten.

Without missing a beat and with her lips still pressed gently against Carol’s ear, Therese chuckled and said, “In journalism, Carol, _that’s_ what we call a bias.”


	2. Chapter 2

I kind of wonder what it would have been like if Therese had never pulled away from Carol when she was smelling her perfume at the McKinley hotel. Like what if Therese had lingered there just a little while longer, taking in the scent of Carol’s perfume that smelled like green silk…

\-----

…and though Therese has just smelled the same perfume on her own wrists not a minute before, there is something uniquely titillating about the scent of it on Carol’s skin. Or perhaps, Therese wonders, it is simply the feeling of being this close to Carol, closer to her than she has ever been before.

Before Therese can quite figure it out, she realizes that she is leaning in even closer to Carol, unconsciously chasing the delight of being enveloped in a scent that is Carol and no one else. She nuzzles Carol’s neck slightly with the tip of her nose and feels the softness of her skin there. Carol sighs and tilts her head to grant Therese more access to her neck, welcoming the feeling of having Therese so close. But as Therese feels Carol react to her touch she catches herself, suddenly aware of where she is as if snapping out of a trance.

Therese pulls away suddenly, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I–” she begins, avoiding Carol’s eyes. 

But Carol looks at her then, gently but wantingly, and tilts Therese’s chin up to meet her gaze. Therese stops in her tracks. “It’s okay,” Carol says softly. She nods her head slightly-reassuringly-and Therese understands. “It’s okay.”

There is a moment of silence between them as Therese lingers momentarily, still hesitating. Then despite herself, Therese feels something inside of her pulling every fiber of her being back in toward Carol, chasing the dreamlike sensation that she had just left behind. This time she places a soft kiss to Carol’s neck right where her nose had just softly caressed. She pauses one last time before leaning in to kiss Carol again, this time with more assurance. Carol’s sighing encourages her and an inexplicable mounting desire pulls Therese forward. She slowly begins kissing her way up Carol’s neck until she reaches just under her jawline, where she then lingers and drags her lips back down against the softness of Carol’s skin, retracing where she had just been. Therese never wants to leave this place; she feels in this moment that she could stay here for the rest of time.

But soon Therese feels a gentle hand coming up to cup the side of her face, and Carol is looking directly at Therese now; her eyes are still gentle but there is something deeper there, too. A question. A desire.

And then, when Carol finally leans in to kiss Therese on the lips, Therese feels that her body is suddenly weightless–suddenly there is nothing holding her to the ground but the feeling of Carol’s hand on her cheek and the ecstasy of Carol’s lips on her own. They remain like this for several moments outside of time, lost in each other’s embrace as they sit together on the floor of the McKinley hotel. 

As their lips separate Carol pauses thoughtfully, running her finger across the top of Therese’s lips in wonder. Therese can see that Carol’s mind is here but it is somewhere else, too, retracing every single moment between them since the day that they met. Her eyes are hooded. They are present, they are distant.

“My angel…” she finally whispers. “Flung out of space.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys...all hope of me sticking to any kind of theme is officially canceled. So I guess this is about to be a collection of my tiny tumblr posts and ramblings. This is the [latest one](https://carol-fic-repository.tumblr.com/post/160230801061/sorry-to-be-uncanon-here-but-i-kind-of-wonder-what).


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for any of you out there that are experiencing hot summer days right now, I hope you're able to stay cool ;)

Therese walked over to the large air conditioning unit one last time as she shot a worried glance over at Carol who was spread out on the couch. She pressed the back of her wrist against her forehead to find that new beads of sweat were quickly gathering there, though she had just splashed ice cold water over her face not a minute ago.

“Sweetheart,” Carol called out from her position on the couch. “ _Please_ tell me you rang the electrician yesterday like you said you would.”

Therese mumbled back something incoherent about having been distracted by work, hoping that in doing so Carol wouldn’t notice the sound of her aimlessly jiggling the temperature dial in vague hope that it might miraculously start working again.

The plan all along had been to have one of Dannie’s friends come over to take a look at the malfunctioning window unit. His friend was in the middle of an apprenticeship with an electrician out in Brooklyn, and he desperately needed some help building up a client base in the city. Therese had somehow convinced Carol that they should give him a chance. So despite the blistering heat wave that was currently sweeping the city and the _very_ unfortunate plumber’s apprentice situation last winter, Carol had obliged.

Carol was regretting that now as she lay stretched out on the chaise longue in the living room, her arms and legs spread out wide as she didn’t dare touch skin to any other bit of skin in this heat. She groaned as she heard the familiar sound of the dial being jiggled across the room.

Therese knew just as well that it was no use, and after another moment she abandoned her efforts to head into the kitchen. “I’ll make it up to you,” she said sweetly as she paused by Carol on the couch before continuing on. “I promise.”

“Oh, you had better,” Carol quipped back, her eyes closed shut. Her head followed the sound of Therese padding toward the kitchen.

Not a minute later, Therese reemerged with a small kitchen towel in her hand that she had submerged in some cold water. “A promise is a promise,” she said as she headed back toward Carol.

“A promise is a promise,” Carol agreed drowsily as she accepted the towel from Therese and placed it on her forehead.

“Some water, perhaps?” Therese offered, and Carol nodded in agreement. So Therese started off again toward the kitchen, then looked back at Carol and added, “and some ice?”

If Carol had nodded in response it barely showed, because all Therese could make out was Carol’s arm falling dramatically over the side of the couch as if finally overcome by the oppressive heat.

“Okay,” Therese said with a smile, mostly to herself.

Another minute later Therese emerged from the kitchen again and walked back over to the couch. Carol’s eyes were closed again and her arm still outstretched, and she made a playful gesture with her hand as she anticipated Therese coming over with the water.

“Hang on,” Therese said patiently at the sight of Carol’s gesture. She kneeled beside Carol on the couch. Instead of handing Carol the glass of water the she so anticipated, Therese touched her own fingers lightly to the palm of Carol’s outstretched hand. In a moment she replaced the soft touch of her fingers with a cube of ice that she had brought over from the kitchen.

Carol started slightly at the change in temperature, though she kept her eyes closed shut. “Darling, what in the–”

“Shh,” Therese whispered gently into Carol’s ear. She was close at hand now. “Do you trust me?”

Carol smiled a lazy smile in Therese’s direction, unable to deny her. “I trust you,” she said slowly.

So Therese returned her attention to Carol’s hand, where she now had the piece of ice pressed against Carol’s finger tips. With her free hand Therese began kneading the palm of Carol’s hand, something that she knew Carol felt in more places than just one, and she followed the movements of her thumb with the ice that she held in her other hand.

She continued on like this for a moment, until she realized that the ice was quickly melting from the heat of both of their skin. She quickly removed the ice and observed the glistening trail of cool water that was left along Carol’s palm, and began massaging the water along the sides of Carol’s hand and up along her wrist so that she could enjoy the sensation.

Carol sighed in relief at the sensation and her lips turned up slowly into a smile as she could vaguely feel Therese moving closer.

And she was right. Not a moment later Therese gently placed her fingers, now chilled from the ice, against Carol’s lips, and Carol kissed the pad of Therese’s thumb pleasantly as she rested it there. Carol sighed at the familiar touch of her love, but just as she exhaled she felt Therese’s gentle touch being replaced by the shivery sensation of an ice cube as Therese placed it against Carol’s bottom lip.

Carol inhaled sharply at the change, and Therese smiled as she watched Carol – the sight of Carol reacting to her touch never failed to amaze her. She dragged the ice slowly along Carol’s bottom lip, and observed as Carol’s lips glistened bright red from the contact.

She kept up this motion as she cautiously moved to join Carol on the couch, watching to see if Carol would react to the increased body heat in the area. But by now Carol seemed to be completely occupied, relaxing into the sensation of the cool elixir. So Therese swung her leg around to the other side of the couch so that she now straddled Carol, and she settled into her new perch.

For a moment Therese paused as Carol’s lips parted slightly, and she watched transfixed as Carol ran her tongue slowly across her lips.Not taking her eyes off of her for a moment, Therese dragged the ice from Carol’s lips down to the dip of her chin, pausing momentarily there before dragging the ice further down along the side of Carol’s neck.

Carol reacted visibly to the touch of the cold ice against her neck, arching her head back against the couch to give Therese further access on her journey. Therese watched carefully as the water dripped down the side of Carol neck, and she leaned forward slowly to touch her lips the very same spot, catching the water as it rolled down Carol’s skin. She remained there momentarily, sucking and nibbling gently, all while moving the ice to the other side of Carol’s neck to offset the new rush of heat.

Gradually, Therese began pushing the quickly melting piece of ice back to its original spot atop Carol lips.But this time, as she straightened back up on the couch, she hovered the ice just above Carol’s lips so that all Carol could feel was condensation slowly dripping down and running like rivulets along her chin and neck. Keeping the coveted ice just out of reach, Therese pulled the ice away gradually and Carol chased after the cool sensation, finally rising from her position on the couch for the first time since she had flopped down there this morning. Therese kept pulling the ice up and up and upward toward her, so that finally Carol was right up next to Therese on the couch, and Therese’s lips were there to meet her.

Carol hummed as she kissed Therese deeply, for the first time that day seemingly unaware of the stifling heat that surrounded them.

Therese pulled away as she ran her hands gently over Carol’s lips once more, and Carol finally dared to open her eyes to find her love looking at her tenderly. “Like I said,” Therese said with a smile, “a promise is a promise.”


End file.
